The world is partly broken and complex. Climate and environmental challenges, among others, need solutions. In many ways, the forest industry, bioeconomy and chemistry are on the same side in solving these challenges.
Steven Van de Broeck, Product Responsibility Director at CEFIC (European Chemical Industry Council), presented the audience with the current state of the chemical industry in Europe. According to him, the industry can be concerned because investments related to chemistry have been postponed or abandoned. Similarly, production capacity has been cut significantly in Europe. The majority of production has been or is being transferred to China.
Van der Broeck's speech, "The Competitiveness Challenges of the EU Chemical Industry," was based on a monitoring tool maintained by CEFIC that examines investments and plant closures in the sector in Europe.
Paula Lehtomäki, CEO of the Finnish Forest Industry Federation, presented the bioeconomy and its solutions. In her speech “Resilient by Nature: How Finnish Forest Industry is Shaping the Future Bioeconomy”, Lehtomäki emphasized, among other things, how essential it is to understand that we are talking about climate challenges in the right terms. Talking about simply removing carbon dioxide, decarbonization, is partly misleading, in her opinion.
"The important thing in solving the challenges is actually that carbon dioxide circulates," emphasized Lehtomäki.
Professor Jouni Paltakari from Aalto University highlighted what needs to be considered in education to best meet the challenges of tomorrow. Students can feel uncertain in a rapidly changing world. They are rightly concerned about something as fundamental as the future of the planet.
In his speech “Chemistry and Industries in Transition: How Can Education Respond to Tomorrow's Challenges”, Paltakari emphasized, among other things, the role of chemistry and bioeconomy. How to inspire young people to pursue chemical engineering? And how to continuously and more effectively ensure that students are enthusiastic about, for example, matters related to the commercialization of biotechnology. Because they can lead, among other things, to new innovations in bio-based materials.
